


Dispatches from Keuruu

by onnenlintu



Series: The Kasvatus Series [3]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-23 01:29:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13776798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onnenlintu/pseuds/onnenlintu
Summary: Series of events bridging the gap between "Kasvatus" and "Kuu saa valtansa auringolta".





	1. I Helped!

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this just to send to a few people, but gaemmel and iitu have convinced me to put it up. Inspired by the moment in Kasvatus where Laura complains about the guy on the Icelandic end of her sheep programme. Reynir character humour with a big side of "so how do they go about farming in post-apocalyptic Finland, anyway?", because we all needed epistolary sheep breeding related semi-crack. It is actually true that the Finn sheep produces wild amounts of lambs at unusually flexible times of the year, but don't hold me to anything else as the closest thing I've done personally is raising goats.

Dear Mrs. Sörjela,  
  
Can I just say I am so excited to be taking over this project! It's so cool that we're going to breed all these immune sheep! I have never worked with Finnish sheep before. Is it really true they lamb all year if you let them? I guess the immunity project will go really fast, if it is true. I am not immune myself but all of my brothers and sisters are. I know it really sucks not being immune, so I hope all these future sheep will appreciate it. The ones we have now are doing so well. The spring is progressing so nicely here. I've been going out on long walks in the mountains. Do you have mountains in Finland? I hope you do. I went somewhere without mountains once and it was depressing. I bet Finland is really pretty. I've never been there.  
  
Kind regards,  
  
Reynir Árnason  
  
P.S. We have no results yet this spring because the change of team has been such a hassle. Sorry!  
  
*  
  
Mr. Árnason,  
  
The stud samples we recieved were in poor condition. I am in negotiation with the Swedish team who do our tests to arrange some kind of refrigeration. Please see attached the latest immunity percentage results.  
  
\- L. Syrjälä  
  
*  
  
Dear Mrs. Syrjälä,  
  
Sorry I spelled your name wrong! I will remember now. You know, you can just call me Reynir. Everyone does. Can I call you Laura? Your Icelandic is so good. I have known some Finns with very good Icelandic, and some where it was really bad. The bad ones sound so adorable though! Do you have an adorable accent? I guess you can't hear it, can you?  
  
We have lots of immune lambs coming through. They're so cute! I can't wait until they grow up. It feels weird to be using these Finnish sheep. I'm used to lambs only coming once a year, you know. Lambs coming at all times of the year seems like science fiction! Do you have science fiction in Finland? I have been trying to read more books. I am reading one about a mage that discovers an old world method of getting to the moon. The story is very exciting, although there are parts in it that are a bit racy and the author seems to do those things a bit, um, differently to how I think most people do them! Sorry, that wasn't very professional, it's just a really weird book! I don't know what to think about it.  
My cousin Bjarni has been wondering if anyone knows what to do about his weird foot. It has a spot on it that smells terrible. You seem smart and know a lot about sheep, do you know anything about weird feet?  
  
Kind regards,  
  
Reynir  
  
*  
  
Mr. Árnason,  
  
Please advise on whether you have been following my instructions regarding the insemination timetable. I have been running my program according to it and will soon have a second batch of lambs. They are expected in around a month. I have enclosed an update on our immunity percentage, based on some tests we ran two weeks ago.  
  
\- L. Syrjälä  
  
P.S. You are still getting my name wrong. I am not married.  
  
*  
  
Dear Ms. Syrjälä,  
  
I am so sorry! I didn't mean to assume. You just seem so knowledgable, I assumed you were much older than me. I suppose that doesn't mean you're married. That was rude. I apologise. How old are you? I will turn 22 this year. Half the people I know are getting married now. It's all a bit scary! I want to travel the world more before I do that. I have travelled a bit, but it didn't go very well and I think next time I will plan much better.  
  
We have been following your instructions to the letter! There's going to be so many lambing seasons this year it's hard to know what to do. Well, of course, I do know what to do. I have worked with sheep my whole life. It was just a figure of speech. But it's a lot to deal with. Did the tests you ran mean a lot of sheep died? I hope not. I know it's all for science and it will be worth it to have real immune flocks, but I hate seeing sheep get sick. I feel so bad for them.  
  
I finished the book I was reading. Do you read much? The book didn't get any better. Having an imagination is good if you're writing books, I think, but maybe this person had too much of a good thing. That's what I'd write if I was his teacher, anyway.  
  
My cousin's foot is still looking very strange, and it's gone a funny colour around the edges of the spot. I don't think I know how to describe how bad it smells.  
  
I have some results for you! They should be with the rest of the package. I hope the iceboxes work out now it's so warm. It's such a lovely summer though, isn't it? I hope you are having nice weather in Finland. I'm still taking lots of long walks. It clears my head after a long day writing everything down.  
  
Best wishes,  
  
Reynir  
  
*  
  
Mr. Árnason,  
  
Your results were interesting and are not being replicated on my end. I need to request more information so I can try to work out if this is due to deviations in the method or environmental factors of some kind. Please enclose the details I hope you have been recording of the samples used, insemination times and the precise variation on the immunity test used.  
  
 - L. Syrjälä  
   
P.S. I am surprised that your cousin's condition persists given what I hear about the quality of facilities in Iceland, but if I were him, I would put a garlic poultice on it. It sounds like some kind of bacterial infection, which should respond to anything with such antiseptic properties.  
  
*  
  
Dear Ms. Syrjälä,  
  
Sorry I didn't send you these before! I have sent a copy of every record we have made this year. I don't know what will be most useful to you so I have included all of it. I guess the program's funding will cover the cost of sending it. Sending letters is so expensive, even small ones! I have been writing to some of the people I travelled with last winter and it's amazing what they charge. I miss some of them an awful lot. Do you have any friends abroad that you miss?  
  
I have started a new book. This one is about elephants. I have never seen anything like an elephant. Do they have elephants in Finland?  
  
My cousin Bjarni tried your suggestion with the garlic and he says it helped, although the mix of smells was not very nice. Now that he has tried it a few times, the smell is stopping. Where did you learn so many things about garlic? I personally find it a bit strong. Do they eat a lot of it in Finland? I often wonder if they have the same food there as they do here. I hope you have skyr in Finland, because I tried out a pie recipe with skyr the other day and it turned out really great. I have attached the recipe along with all the sheep results.  
  
Best wishes,  
  
Reynir  
  
*  
  
Mr. Árnason,  
  
Thank you for the completeness of your information. It has taken me some time to work through the large pile of papers, but the names and shift times of every person administering the immunity tests have actually turned out to be vital, as I have finally spotted a pattern that corresponds to the irregularities. I have attached a summary. I suggest everyone involved in the project takes note of these observations, but please take extra care to forward them to whoever was marked down as just "Hjalti".  
I have suspected for some time that our testing methods need to be refined further in order to be truly accurate in sheep, and this may open up the justification for more funding to explore this. It would be most helpful if you could arrange a follow-up to see if there is any irregularity at all between the results of lambs tested by different people.  
  
\- L. Syrjälä  
  
*  
Dear Ms. Syrjälä,  
  
I'm so glad you worked it out! I sent your paper to everyone and we are double-checking everything Hjalti has done. He has a lot on his plate right now so it makes sense he'd make some mistakes. His sixth child was just born and he's only coming in sometimes anyway, so there's not too much to check. His new little girl is the cutest baby I've ever seen. I have attached a picture. The woman holding the baby in the picture is Hjalti's wife Signý, she's also my second cousin once removed. I guess that makes the baby my third cousin. Speaking of cousins, Bjarni's foot is totally better now. I will remember the garlic trick from now on.  
  
Did you try my pie recipe? Maybe they don't have skyr in Finland. I think any kind of thick milk would work. I think it would be good with some blueberries, and those must be on their way soon, unless they don't have blueberries in Finland. I hope you do have them, they're my favourite.  
  
Are you still testing the lambs' immunity in the field? I guess it's not good to only have one real testing ground, and I know we need to do science with the sheep, but I'm a bit glad we aren't able to do Rash exposure tests here. It would be so sad. I'm sorry you have to do it.  
  
I finished my book about elephants. It turns out you can't find them anywhere in the Known World. That's a bit disappointing. I would have liked to see an elephant someday.  
  
I have some other results now and have attached them. I will let you know how the retesting is going. We have an awful lot of lambs now. Most of them are at a really gangly stage, bless them. It always reminds me of how I used to be. I hope they aren't bumping their heads on everything like I used to when I was growing.  
  
Kind regards,  
  
Reynir  
  
P.S. You really can just call me Reynir. Nobody but you calls me "Mr. Árnason".  
  
*  
  
Mr. Árnason,  
  
I have not been sending much detail on the practical immunity tests as I am aware you are unable to attempt to replicate them, but I will briefly explain my process if this is of interest to you and your team. I am luckily immune and therefore can cooperate with the scouts in Keuruu to obtain contaminated material and expose the sheep in a facility outside town we have dedicated to the purpose. Exposure is accomplished by shaving a section of the sheep and performing a small nick to the skin before applying pulverised troll tissue, then the sheep are kept in quarantine until two weeks pass or symptoms appear. I will admit that nobody here likes it either, but we are well equipped with mages who are able to perform the necessary rites once infected sheep have been euthanised, so you need not be too concerned for their long-term welfare. If you wish to read more, I must apologise and say I cannot find any Icelandic name for the process we use, but the key word in Finnish would be "kallohonka".  
  
I have reviewed your latest results and there appear to be fewer inconsistencies with mine, which is heartening. I enclose the last round of immunity tests for the year. We cannot expect any more lambs until spring as we lack the facilities to keep so many indoors and on feed, but I will be working throughout the winter to corroborate any results that emerge on the Icelandic end.  
  
\- L. Syrjälä  
  
*  
  
Dear Ms. Syrjälä,  
  
Thank you for explaining how it works out there! I am glad to hear that you have mages who can make sure the sheep end up okay. I am a mage myself, although I haven't trained at the Academy. I didn't actually find out until last winter. I have been reading much more about runes since I realised, and have been using them more to keep the sheep on the right track. I have met Finnish mages before but don't really understand their magic. I'm an all runes kind of guy, I guess.  
  
I have decided to spend part of the winter trying to re-test every one of the lambs (I guess some of them are more sheep now) myself. It would be good to know if the test itself has something inconsistent about it before next spring, wouldn't it? I have included what I have done so far. It's a lot of work, but I don't know how else to make totally sure for you!  
  
It's getting so dark here in Iceland. I looked at the map and I think the way it works means it will be dark in Finland too. But at least Yule is really soon! Do you have Yule in Finland? My cousin, Bjarni, is making the roast this year. Do you remember Bjarni? He was the one with the foot problem. It still hasn't come back.  
  
I haven't started another book because I have been so busy with the tests, but I did improve my pie recipe. I have attached the improved version.  
  
Kind regards,  
  
Reynir  
  
*  
  
Mr. Árnason,  
  
I have looked over the provisional renewed results and can confirm they are even more consistent with mine than the last retest. There are still minor discrepancies but if we can indeed confirm that this is not entirely due to user error by the spring, perhaps in the coming year we can look again at the idea of that development fund. I include a full summary of my results from the past year, in the tentative hope that this aids our attempt.  
  
\- L. Syrjälä  
  
*  
  
Dear Ms. Syrjälä,  
  
I finished the retesting and I am so excited! From what I can see, I think we have the least different results so far. There's definitely still something, though, so I have gone into Reykjavik to ask about it before I even wrote to you. I told them I thought there was something wrong with the test and they say I have to write a proposal. I thought a proposal was when someone asks another person to marry them, but that's not what this is at all. I'm glad about that, because I don't know how I would make it work if I had to marry the entire research council. I will think about what to say. It's very difficult. I don't want to seem rude but it feels a bit rude just asking them for all that money.  
  
It's so cold here right now. Is it cold in Finland? I think it snows a lot there. That's what I've heard. I guess that's why elephants don't like to live there. They didn't look very hairy, from the pictures in my book. My Yule was absolutely lovely. I made socks for my mother and she gave me mittens back. I still don't know if you even do Yule there, or what food you eat if you do. I think I told you Bjarni was doing the roast. Unfortunately since your garlic cure he has gotten very, very into using garlic. It is okay in small amounts, but what Bjarni did at Yule was not a small amount. It's been three weeks and I can still smell it in my hair.  
  
I have attached the final results of the retest. I hope you have some advice about writing the proposal. I really have no idea what to say at all.  
  
Kind regards,  
  
Reynir  
  
*  
  
Mr. Árnason,  
  
I have attached a research proposal. I would strongly advise keeping the wording as is and just signing it before handing it to the council.  
  
\- L. Syrjälä  
  
*  
  
Dear Ms. Syrjälä,  
  
Well, we have gotten the decision about your proposal, and I have a mix of good news and bad news. The good news is that we will be getting much more money. Something in what you said must have been really convincing. We will be able to start looking into a better testing method really soon. The bad news is that now that the program has more money, they are replacing me with someone who knows a little more about doing research. I'm going to miss doing science! It was so exciting knowing I was helping fill the world with immune sheep. I will also miss hearing from you. It was great having a pen pal all the way over in Finland. Can I still send you pie recipes? You can write to me any time. I will be going back to my own sheep. I have written my new address in the bottom corner. It is technically my old address but I guess it's new to you.  
  
Best wishes,  
  
Reynir  
  
*  
  
Mr. Hilmarsson,  
  
I have been informed that you have recently taken over the role previously occupied by Reynir Árnason. I look forward to a productive professional relationship.  
  
\- L. Syrjälä  
  
*  
  
Reynir,  
  
Thank you for the pie recipe. It is indeed very nice, although we made it with rahka rather than skyr. We have neither elephants nor mountains in Finland, but we do have blueberries and snow. The attached picture is of my two favourite breeding ewes. Their names are Voi and Kehä, which is a sort of pun on some flower names in Finnish.  
  
Regards,  
Laura


	2. Revontulet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May have been written when real-life Finland was also in the middle of a terrible cold snap. Write what you know, I guess!

The battered thermometer hanging by the gate had said -28. Lalli's senses said frosted eyelashes and the hairs in his nose freezing to painful needles. The same senses made him aware that his fingertips were suffering even through the layered gloves and mittens on his hands. He kept himself awake to the pain, knowing that if he tuned it out, he might miss the moment he stopped feeling it and was in real danger. The thick fur of his hood and the scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face were doing well enough,though, to keep his ears from going numb and his breath from hurting in his chest. It had been hours since he left the all-too-fragile warmth of his bed in Keuruu, and the sled dogs had run fast enough all night to keep a cold wind whipping through any crack in his clothes.  
  
Now they knew they were on the way home, and when he stepped back to drive the brake into the snow, he had to brace himself hard against the sled's handles to stop them. With just his slender weight on it they would have happily kept going, leaving two spiked grooves in their wake, all the way back to their dinner.  The tiny lamp that dangled on the sled swayed, spilling an irregular, dancing light into the surrounding blackness.  Lalli kept up the strain as the dogs yelped and jumped against their harnesses, using one hand to toss a loop of rope over a post that had been embedded deep into the frozen field. They pulled it tight as he dismounted, sinking almost knee-deep into the snow beside their tracks.  
  
Lalli had prayed for a winter that would purge the land he now stood on, and this was the bitterest part of the gods' answer. When the forest was this laden down with ice, there were only a few scouts needed, so anyone venturing out could make use of one of the sled teams. There were only a handful of them, but they were kept for precisely this purpose, it being faster than skis and running through snow this deep being near-impossible. He stamped through drifts that had piled deep in every furrow left by the Cleansers last summer, feeling with satisfaction that the land under his feet called out with nothing but the vague hopes of some very dormant grass seeds.  
  
Lalli looked up, far away enough from his sled to let his eyes adjust to the dark. He could hear the dogs behind him, still whining to be allowed to run again, but stood watching the sky for a moment. When the night was allowed to be what it was, the stars shone bright enough to pick out the lines of the trees on the edge of the field. Their silhouettes curved against the bright backdrop of the Milky Way, visibly weighed down by the volume of ice that clung to their branches. Somewhere between the stars and the trees, the auroras were dancing, hanging and glowing for a moment then flickering and curling forwards, moving in the way only they did.  
  
He watched them for long enough that the dogs began to stop straining and lay down. In the sudden quiet, he could hear a faint ringing hum that was more like a sensation than a sound, like the shiver left in the air after someone had struck a large piece of metal and the audible noise had only just died. Grandma had told him once that some said the sound of the lights was just an illusion. Before that, Great-Grandma had told her that in the old world, impossibly sensitive instruments that nobody would ever make again had proved them wrong. Grandma had not been one to speak of the old world, but she had told him this. Apparently nothing the Rash had done on earth had changed the ethereal glow that progressed across the sky above him.  
  
The wind touched him through his clothes. He had been stood still a long time. Turning his back on the sky, he made his way as quickly as possible back to the dogsled, rousing the dogs back into straining and whining. Pulling the rope from its post, he kicked off the ground, letting the dogs throw themselves into the task they had been born to do. The sled skipped across the ground behind them in a movement Lalli always used as his template when he tried to imagine what it might be like to fly. Walls became visible, then a gate which a handler threw open to let the dogs take themselves home. After he had seen them penned and to their dinner, he nodded a farewell at their keeper, heading into the town.  
  
The most subtle hint of a dawn was washing out the stars at one end of the sky when he entered the reports room. There was a tiny burner in the corner, putting out more heat than Lalli had felt all day. He pulled off his mittens, peeled away the thinner gloves underneath, and held his hands to the fire. He could feel his cheeks tingle as the numbness in them faded out. Finally, his frozen fingers regained enough sensation to write with. He made his report and left the heater behind with some regret. He never bothered to heat his room in the winter, resigning himself to the fact that it would be impossible to have something burning when he left for the night and still have any significant warmth left when he returned and immediately needed to sleep. His winter habit was just to curl up under his pile of blankets in most of his clothes, then wait for his own body to heat the space around him until it was warm enough to sleep. Like it or not, these were the facts of Feburary.  
  
It was so unusually cold even for this time of year, and Lalli remembered that his own body heat wasn't his only option.  
  
While he was on his way to Emil's house, he thought about a few things the cold weather had deprived him of. Nobody removed their clothes properly in the winter, unless they were right about to step into a sauna. He remembered the few times last summer when he and Emil had found real free time. Emil had seemed a little surprised, but incredibly pleased, by his desire to expose every bit of skin then work on it with a scout's exploratory urge and a mage's meticulous attention. Lalli was nothing if not resourceful, as well as observant of every detail once his attention was on something. When Lalli had knelt between Emil's legs and felt out the ways it was possible to touch another human, Emil had been nothing if not fun to observe. Lalli was still thinking about this when he slid his knife in between the window and its frame to catch the hook that held it. He was thinking about it with intent when he had gently shut the window again, shed a few of his outer clothes and crawled into Emil's bed. Emil's sleepy "good morning" was repeated as far more wakeful "oh! Good morning!" when he had wrapped his warm limbs around Lalli's cold ones and immediately noticed the state he was in.  
  
Emil's room was still freezing. The heated downstairs of the house left the upstairs noticably warmer than the street outside, but when Emil pulled aside layers to gently suck at the dip of Lalli's collarbones, his near-silent gasp and sigh fogged in the air. The two of them burrowed deeper into the blankets, careful not to place so much as a digit outside of their tiny patch of warmth. Lalli's body tingled as cold skin remembered that it had working nerve endings, then Emil's hands tentatively rucking up the thick clothes around his torso made him grateful for that fact. By the time they were done, the air under the blanket smelled of their breath and was suffocatingly humid, both being unwilling to let even the tiniest draft into the cocoon they'd made. With their clothes mostly still on, limbs tangled and foreheads resting together, Lalli was the warmest he had been in many days, eyelashes fluttering with sudden sleepiness.  
  
Emil was the first to move, with great reluctance. "We should clean up. And I have to leave." He cuddled into Lalli with extra force for a moment, sighing deeply, before acting on his words. Lalli made a noise of intense displeasure as moving blankets let the air in, a freezing cold cloth was offered, and the source of his warmth started putting on more clothes by the light of the sunrise that had finally arrived. As Lalli was finishing arranging the blankets around himself to keep as much of the warmth they'd created as possible, Emil returned to plant his cooling lips on Lalli's forehead. "Goodnight." Lalli kept his eyes open for long enough to see him leave, then passed out almost instantly.  
  
When Lalli woke up, it was to a cold evening and a cold bed, but also to the sound of people talking in the kitchen below. He went down the stairs without bothering to put on his coat, knowing that there would be a warm stove waiting. During the winter, the five residents of the house kept the stove going constantly enough that the kitchen always had some warmth. It was incredibly crowded, as every container of liquid in the house had been moved to stop it freezing over and everyone spent the whole evening in there to avoid their cold rooms. Lalli could smell stew from the corridor upstairs and entered to find Miri had been at work with one of his rabbits and some of the chanterelles she'd dried from last autumn's haul. She had started enthusiastically feeding Lalli a few months beforehand, sticking pats of butter or extra dumplings into his bowl every time he appeared for dinner while making comments on the cold he was about to endure that night. It kept him a little warmer than he otherwise would have been. He appreciated it, and tried to note what she said about the things he gifted the house. The arrangement felt satisfyingly reciprocal.  
  
Lalli ate his stew and watched the airlock on one of the countertop bottles bubble gently. It was oddly attention-grabbing. The bubble nudged slowly around the corner of the little tube, and Lalli counted the seconds between each pop. Laura had not appeared and Miri had gone out somewhere after eating dinner, but Jaana and Sini were chatting about the day he'd slept through, over their respective tasks of reading a paper and changing the violin's strings. As he was scraping the last specks of mushroom from his bowl, Emil came in the door. "Hey! You're still here! I thought you'd be gone by now."  
  
"Winter. Less nights at work."  
  
"Oh yeah. So you're staying tonight?"  
  
Lalli supposed he was, then. Emil sat down to take his own helping of stew, demolishing it with enthusiasm. Lalli returned to watching the wine brew until he heard Emil saying his name. "Lalli!"  
  
Lalli looked up and found everyone looking at him in the way people always seemed to when someone had been trying to get his attention for a while. "Mm?"  
  
"Your hair's getting long." That was true. "Um, I've been wondering. For a few months now. Who cuts your hair?"  
  
What an odd question. "Onni does."  
  
"Really?" Lalli didn't know why this would surprise Emil. In most of the years since they had come to Keuruu, Onni had been the only one who noticed any number of things that Lalli needed done. Lalli's confusion must have shown on his face, because Emil clarified. "It's just that, um, I do like Onni, but I wouldn't let him cut my hair. His own hair looks like he does it to himself with a fishing knife and no mirror."  
  
Lalli filed away the knowledge that on this subject, Emil was perfectly capable of observing and drawing startlingly accurate conclusions. He realised that what Emil was saying was likely meant to have a point. "You don't like my hair?"  
  
Emil paused. "Your hair is lovely. But it's, uhm. What's the word."  
  
"Is the adjective you want 'uneven'?" asked Jaana, peering over the page she was reading in the corner.  
  
"Yes, I think so." He turned back to Lalli. "I mean, if it doesn't matter to you, could I maybe try to do it instead?"  
  
Lalli had seen Emil cutting Laura's hair in all kinds of odd ways. He was used to looking the way he did. He liked when things he was used to didn't change. "Mrr."  
  
"I won't do anything weird. I promise. It'll look the same."  
  
"If it's going to look the same then why do you want to do it yourself?"  
  
"I mean, um, like a better version of the same thing."  
  
Lalli was deeply suspicious. Jaana had put down her paper and was watching the interaction. "Lalli, you look like a cat who's just realised someone is about to shave it."  
  
Lalli glared at her and she continued anyway. "Well, you do. For what it's worth, I'd trust him with my hair over your cousin. I like Onni too, but that mullet is deeply unfortunate."  
  
Emil sighed. "It's fine if the answer is no. I just, uhm, wondered."  
  
"You can do it."  
  
Emil sat up a little. "Are you sure?"  
  
"If you make it weird I guess it'll grow back."  
  
Emil looked way too pleased about this. "I won't make it weird! I promise!"  
  
Lalli sat and watched as Emil went to fetch some pins, the smallest pair of scissors in the house, and a comb. When Emil was stood behind him, he started to work out the tangles with the comb, gently teasing out knots from the tips to the roots of his hair. Lalli wasn't sure if this was meant to be part of the process or just a nice gesture. Emil arranged Lalli's hair very deliberately evenly on the sides of his head. Alright, this probably was relevant to the haircut. Pinning the top layer of Lalli's hair up, Emil began to carefully snip at the parts that were left hanging down. Onni would have been done with this task by now, but Lalli couldn't really bring himself to mind. The way Emil gently combed his hair down with every cut and let his hands linger brushing hair off his shoulders was incredibly soothing. He hummed softly when Emil's fingertips touched his neck, feeling like this was probably the most pleasant a haircut could be.  
  
Eventually, Emil was done and Lalli put his hands to his hair. It felt oddly soft, and Lalli said so. Emil replied that he had cut out the "dead bits". Lalli was fairly sure that all hair was dead. He addressed Jaana. "Does it look the same?"  
  
She looked up at him and squinted. "Pretty much."  
  
"We have a mirror", Emil added. Lalli declined to use it. It felt more or less normal, although the tips seemed oddly thicker than before. This was fine. Emil seemed extremely pleased with his work, and that was nice. Lalli did know him well enough to realise that this was one of the ways he cared for people, and although he really had never seen the need for this, the intent of the gesture was sweet.  
  
Once the clippings were swept up, Emil got to work writing some letters and Lalli remembered that he himself would likely be sitting in here awake for most of the night. Well, it would save someone who lived here from waking up early to make sure the fire was going. There was a half-finished wood carving of his somewhere in this room, and he went to find it, locating it shoved into a cupboard mostly full of more dried mushrooms in jars. He stuck another split log into the stove, sat down and began to pick some details into the fox he'd started a few days before. The little flames he was depicting on its tail needed to be shaved to sharp points, and he lost himself in concentration. Sini finished restringing her violin and began to tune it. The evening kept on being peaceful and warm.


	3. Stop Worrying!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter marks the start of me revving up for another epic arc! I have a proper sequel to "Kasvatus" in the works, one which will involve a lot more adventurous journeying, family bonding, and of course our boys learning things about each other. For now, though, we have to account for the spring and summer. Probably one more section posted in here before I start posting chapters of the epic sequel.

Onni leaned his knee on the panel that had come off his tiny stove, cursing as it bent even further out of the shape it needed to be. He was not exactly incapable with a hammer, but every effort he'd made so far had somehow made this problem worse. With a deep sigh, he accepted that he might have to actually take this down to the workshop. There had been a time when he used to bother Tuuri for such things. Her knack for making things fit together and work was something he had a touch of, but could never quite emulate. He supposed it was a good thing that he could remember that without crying. The first handful of times this kind of thing had happened and brought up the thought, he'd been a mess for hours. Eventually he had moved on to a weird stage of keeping it together at first, then feeling guilt at being able to do so, then losing it again. This time, though, was more or less alright. Tuuri wasn't here, so he would go find someone else. Antti would likely be in his workshop and able to sort it out within minutes, then he could come home, and probably not even cry about it at all.  
  
He traipsed down the road, awkwardly holding the offending sheet of metal. The winter had been brutal, but now that it was nearly April, the snow was reaching the stage of dampness where it melted on Onni's face and formed an icy crust on his coat. He hated this stage of spring, where no amount of care or boot maintenance could stop the street being treacherous. Sloppy sleet, almost rain, had come down a few days before. It had melted holes in the top layer of snow, and after a few nights freezing everything was both slippery and horribly textured.  
  
Antti was indeed in his workshop. "Onni. We haven't spoken lately."  
  
Onni was about to reply more or less in kind when another voice interrupted from behind one of the loud, stinking machines they repaired here. "Onni! Hey!"  
  
Emil popped up, looking slightly more frazzled than his vanity usually allowed. His hair was tied back by some kind of bandanna and he was wearing a tunic, much like the ones everyone else in Keuruu wore, rolled up to the elbows. His apron and gloves were stained with grease and slightly too big for him. Were it not for the persistence of his ridiculous accent, he might well have been mistaken for someone who belonged here.  
  
"Sorry about the other day! I asked Miri to explain it. I think I understand now, or, well, I know what the rule is, anyway. I won't do it again, I promise!" He grinned winningly, clearly hoping to have soothed Onni's former grumpiness with him.  
  
Onni was extremely neutral. "Alright. Good." Emil ducked back down and started tinkering again, creating a lot of crashing noises and weird whirring.  
  
Emil had been referring to an incident a few days prior in which Onni had been helping to repair some fishing nets they would need this summer. Nobody had paid Emil any mind as he went by with the two small children who seemed to follow him everywhere they were allowed to. This had been a mistake, because he had let the girl run right over a net they had spread out on the ground. She had wailed and darted back to Emil as a chorus of people began to yell at her for the terrible luck she'd just brought them.  
  
"She's _three years old_." Emil had objected, holding the teary-eyed child and glaring at Onni. He had seemed deeply offended by the idea that the sticky-fingered creature in his arms could be anything but totally innocent.  
  
"It's still bad luck. You can't let her run over the nets."  
  
"She didn't break anything!"  
  
Onni had been perhaps slightly harsh when he explained that respecting the fishing nets was not an optional cultural activity. He had been extremely annoyed by the work Emil had made for him with his negligence, and the fact he always found that Swedish boy a little annoying to begin with had made him respond rather poorly. The earnestness of Emil's apology now made him feel slightly bad for having told him off so abruptly, but Onni supposed he seemed fine. Anyway, the incident was in the past, and not what he was here to talk about.  
  
Antti made pretty quick work of hammering the dents out and reshaping Onni's broken piece into functionality. The attempts Onni had made with a smaller hammer would leave it forever a little strange, but it would fit again.  
  
Onni looked over to where Emil was working. He seemed pretty absorbed in it. "By the way, since when has he been doing more than lifting boxes?"  
  
Antti thought about it. "I started teaching him a few more things a month or so ago. It seems he means it when he says he wants to stay, so we might as well make some use of his brain as well."  
  
"I suppose so." Onni wasn't entirely sure there was that much of it to use, but he took the point. Antti seemed slightly amused by his reaction to the idea of Emil being worth training to do things. "You know, once you explain an engine to him as a series of explosions, it all sinks in very quickly." Onni supposed he could see how that one worked.  
  
There was no sense hanging around cluttering up the workshop, so he thanked Antti and began to make his way home. Emil called to him as he left, making as if to follow him but settling for wishing him a good day as Onni shut the door behind him. He was always eagerly friendly with Onni, despite them having barely interacted in the time since he'd set himself up here. Onni knew, of course, that he and Lalli had some kind of involvement. He had been really quite surprised, as much by Lalli making the effort to give him that kind of life update as anything else, and assumed it would be over by the time autumn came. Lalli's blankly factual tone when he had informed him "also, Emil and I are seeing each other" had done nothing to convince him it was meant to be serious. Onni almost worried he'd offended his cousin with the implication it was surprising he'd find someone, but the only response Lalli had given was "yes, I know, he is very Swedish. I think I don't mind" before moving the conversation back to rabbit pelts.  
  
Onni hadn't known what to think when Emil had moved in with the four women Tuuri used to spend all her time with. Lalli had started spending an awful lot of evenings at their house. Based on how torn up he'd been last autumn over the sight of Emil babysitting the latest batch of orphans, it seemed pretty obvious that he was more emotionally involved than Onni had first assumed. Given that fact, the way Emil was doing his awkward best to befriend Onni was probably a sign that he and Lalli were in some way on the same page. He couldn't see any reason for it besides some attempt to act out the "meeting the relatives" stage of a relationship.  
  
He wasn't unreceptive to it, as such. He had made Emil a hat when Lalli had come to ask, seemingly worried about the fact he had totally failed to prepare for staying here all winter as well. It was just that the next steps of relating to him were a complete mystery. Emil and Onni had nothing in common, besides apparently caring a lot about Lalli, and there wasn't much conversation that could be made from that. Also, Lalli was right. He was _extremely_ Swedish. It bothered Onni that he did have some mild reservations regarding his cousin's judgement. As much as Emil clearly put a lot of effort into Lalli and the work he'd found here, Onni's impression of him was still of someone who was annoyingly whiny, vain, and culturally illiterate.  
  
Then again, Antti was training Emil to do all sorts of things, and being taken under the wing of someone so sensible and widely-ranged in skill would probably do him some good. If Onni was asked to name a good character influence, that would be it. And as much as he made it his business to look after Lalli, he knew logically that he was going to be twenty-one this year, and could probably handle this. But then, Lalli's way of relating to people had always been -  
  
Onni realised he'd been mulling this over so intensely that he'd walked right past his door. In front of him was an open square that was a clear fifty meters beyond the building he lived in. He sighed. Letting this endlessly bother him was not productive, and he knew it. Not that knowing this ever stopped him worrying. That lack of control was itself worrying. At this point, Tuuri would already have looked at him with fond exasperation and told him _Onni, stop worrying!_  
  
That was the thought that told him he definitely needed to go home now. He turned and picked his way back over the ice. There were plenty of other things to occupy his mind with today. The tasks of every small job Onni had alongside his mage work were neverending, and doing something with his hands would help. It always did. He spent the rest of the afternoon in the enjoyable rhythm of practical work, and by the evening happily realised the tension of his earlier fretting had more or less faded.


	4. Hei hei heinäkuu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One summer passing, three quite different relationships, the final setup before we start on the sequel arc!

_"Why though?"_ Laura asked, finally releasing her annoyance. She had clearly been holding it in for some time, as the strength of feeling in her exclaimation was quite unlike her.  
  
"I think we know why." Emil responded, looking at the back of the closed door as if he might still be lucky enough to see through it.  
  
Jaana still had her hand on the doorknob. "Was it really that bad?"  
  
Everyone else at the breakfast table responded in a chorus of _"Yes!"_  
  
"I mean, like I said, I see why. Honestly, I'm impressed." Emil continued. "But, wow, I don't even speak Icelandic and I could still tell Þráinn - am I saying it right? - anyway, he's obnoxious." He had finished his porridge and was polishing one of his boots at the table, seeming not to notice that the cloth he was using was actually for dishes. If Jaana had been feeling more defensive, she might have claimed there was a trace of irony to that statement coming from him. It wasn't like Emil could talk about standards, either. When that Norwegian unit had passed through earlier in the summer, he'd definitely availed himself of the new influx of big-armed men with more enthusiasm than discernment, or so Jaana gathered from the way Lalli had been poking fun at him afterwards. Still, she was fully ready to admit he was correct about this one.  
  
"He is definitely leaving at the end of the summer." She started to feel a tiny bit bad for inflicting this new guy on her housemates. Nobody was under the impression she was angling for something serious with the loud, patronising Icelander she'd started bringing over, but it was still a little unfair to have him around in the morning.  
  
Laura was not mollified. "The research team are going to be here until September. I don't know if I can deal with three more months of him being in our house all the time." It was technically her doing that this guy was in Keuruu. After some serious breakthroughs in her sheep project, a pack of Icelandic researchers had descended on the place with great interest, bringing a few supplementary members intended to protect them against the wilds of Finland. It was completely unnecessary given they didn't intend to go any further than Keuruu, but Jaana wasn't complaining about the presence of the strapping soldier she'd quickly won over. She was of the opinion that Emil had every reason to be impressed with her wolflike hunting skills. Her expert "of course that joke was funny" act was the product of years of practise.  
  
Sini was clearly working up to saying something. "Could you maybe go visit him instead?"  
  
Jaana made a face. "Technically I could. It's so crowded over where they're keeping the Icelanders, though."  
  
"It's crowded here, too" Miri pointed out.  
  
"Emil brings Lalli over!"  
  
"Lalli doesn't swagger around drinking from our milk jug and explaining things about the sheep project that we all already know."  
  
Jaana had to admit Miri had a point. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'll go over to their place." She paused. "You all have to admit you do see why, though."  
  
"He has shoulders like an actual cart horse." Emil said, pausing his boot-polishing to put his chin in his palm and look a bit distant.  
  
"Don't encourage her!" Laura retorted, flicking a bit of porridge at him.  
  
Sini looked awkward when she agreed with Emil. "I mean, I couldn't get past having to talk to him, but you can really uh, tell he worked hard in whatever training they give Icelandic soldiers."  
  
Miri concurred. "I guess if he's leaving in three months... it's not like you seem to do much talking anyway."  
  
Jaana felt and sounded incredibly smug as she heavily hinted at a few of the things she'd been using to avoid Þráinn using his mouth to talk. Sini rolled her eyes. "You know what, I almost see how you two could have a conversation."  
  
*  
  
Lalli turned a corner and almost ran directly into Emil. The two of them hadn't seen each other in a couple of days, and he had already been gearing up to a night of solitude in the forest. He would need his wits about him, as the summer heat was really starting to reach its peak. The toddler in Emil's arms looked bizarrely pleased to see him. "Lalli!"  
  
He winced at the shrillness of her voice and tried to ignore it, addressing Emil. "I didn't expect to see you."  
  
"Oh. Small place, I guess." He looked pleased to see him, but also pretty tired. Lalli was fairly sure he recalled that this was one of the days Emil had to run after those howling mini-humans from morning till evening. Keeping track of which exact weekday it was had always seemed generally unneseccary to Lalli, but he was trying to make an effort now. Memorising the schedule Emil had piled on himself had its perks.  
  
"Lalli, pick up." Emil's job was holding out her arms at him. Emil sighed and turned her around to look her in the face. "Lalli is going to work! He can't carry you. Look, I'll keep carrying you, you can go on my shoulders if you want." He made good on his promise and let her clamber up, then looked back to Lalli. "Viivi really likes you, I don't know why. I mean, I know why someone would like you, obviously, but the only thing she knows about you is that I like you. I guess that's enough, I don't know, I have no idea what she's thinking most of the time..." His rambling trailed off a little in the way it always did when he needed an early night.  
  
Lalli didn't have any insight to offer. He was unhappy around anyone who screamed as loudly and unexpectedly as small children usually seemed to, and still found Emil's way with them to be utterly mystifying. "I should go."  
  
Emil nodded, the child on his shoulders grabbing his hair as his head moved. "Uhm, are you coming over again anytime soon? I know you're busy, but..."  
  
"When do you start tomorrow?"  
  
"Not that early."  
  
Lalli brushed Emil's cheek with the back of his fingers as he passed him, avoiding the small hand that tried to grab at him as he did so. "I'll find you."  
  
The forest was bright. The month had turned over into August, and the light of midsummer had long started to fade, but there was still no real darkness even in the middle of the night. Near the lake, a cool mist rose as the colours faded from the deep oranges of the sunset into the creamy peaches of the sunrise. On the lake's shore, a troll was heaving itself  out the water, huffing as it pulled its bloated weight. Lalli vaulted into a nearby tree and watched it approach, evaluating its movement. It still hadn't noticed him when he pounced downwards, landing on its back in a springy squat that let him drive a knife directly through its thankfully single skull. Lalli noted where it had died and made a guess at the time it had decided to crawl out of the lake. He had found several like this in the past few weeks, and would make sure to warn people away from this part of the forest until the blip in activity had passed.  
  
He ran through the woods. Trees whipped past him. Trolls were detected easily and died quickly on his blade. The light slowly shifted from the indirect light of the summer night to the soft clarity of morning, and as he approached the end of his circuit he could feel a light but very present touch of warmth on his face. The walk from the reporting office was pleasant in just his short sleeves, and Emil's window was gleaming in the bright sun by the time Lalli stood under it. It was still early enough that nobody on the street was there to judge him for entering through the window.  
  
Emil slept through him sliding the window open, then shut. He never seemed to wear many clothes to sleep in the summer, and was lightly curled around his pillow. Lalli stood by his bed for a moment, watching his bare ribs move slightly with his sleeping breath, taking in how the brightening daylight illuminated the hair falling over his lightly closed eyes. Sometime in the past year, the sight of this had started to ignite an overwhelming fluttering and lightness in Lalli's chest. It had crept up in the way spring does, growing its tiny shoots within him and then blooming all at once. The strange things people said in love songs had still not quite made sense to him when this had begun, but at some unplaceable point that had utterly changed. He decided against trying to wake him up. Shedding any restrictive clothes, he let them fall on the floor, then carefully wriggled into the space Emil's pillow was occupying. Emil's eyes did flutter open briefly with a small "Mm?", but fell shut again as he recognised the feeling of Lalli nestling himself down. Lalli felt arms tighten around him and the lightness of breath through his hair as he started to drift off to sleep himself.  
  
*  
  
Emil opened the door to a face that had fast become very familiar. Sanna was short even for a Finn, with pretty, almond-shaped eyes. She had started coming over every few days in the past month or so. Her move to Keuruu in the spring had made life easier for Laura, as she always struggled to find mages who would help her with the tedious work of making sure any of her infected sheep were properly sent off. Despite being by most standards fairly shy, Sanna was still the most social Finnish mage Emil had yet met, and had eagerly agreed to help Laura once she heard of the work. Lalli had been pleased to not be the only one Laura could personally bother for the favour of clambering into the trees to affix skulls in the branches. The final work done by the Icelandic researchers over the summer had all but totally ended Sanna's usefulness, as everyone's careful work had finally resulted in something like reliably immune sheep, but she had kept hanging around. She looked a little nervous standing on the doorstep.  
  
"Is Laura in?"  
  
"She will be soon, if you want to come inside for a bit."  
  
Sanna nodded and ducked under Emil's arm as she came inside. She put down the basket she was carrying as she took her shoes off. Emil saw that it was full of piles of lingonberries, proof of how deep into September they now were. "Are those for her?"  
  
She nodded. "She likes them, doesn't she?" Her habit of double-checking everything she knew was something Emil supposed was useful in a mage. He had noticed that Lalli seemed to like her a lot, and it seemed that it was at least partly due to her personality, rather than just being that she lightened his workload.  
  
"She does, yeah. I don't think I know anyone else who likes them plain that much." Emil shut the door. "Do you want... something to drink, maybe?"  
  
"Oh, no, I'm fine! I'll just wait here."  
  
Emil returned to the kitchen and resumed the washing up he'd been doing. Sanna sat at the table, poking at the contents of her basket. Her and Laura's emerging courtship was sweet, and he liked them both enough to be hoping that something came of it. At this point, he was really quite sure that was what it was. The consistency and thoughtfulness of the gifts they kept finding for each other, as well as the way Laura fussed around when she knew Sanna was coming over, made it pretty obvious the two of them had something. It was kind of awkward waiting for them to admit it out loud, but learning to mind his own business sometimes was a thing Emil was slowly learning the value of, so he kept his mouth shut.  
  
"So you're staying in Keuruu over the winter too, right?" He might as well try to make conversation.  
  
"Yes! I think I'm here pretty much from now on. No other plans at the moment." She responded a little too quickly, then fell silent again. Something was occupying her.  
  
Emil was saved from trying to think of something else when Laura returned. "Oh! Sanna! I didn't expect you to be over here already."  
  
Sanna moved as if to stand up, grabbing her basket, then sat down again. "I can wait for you to rest a bit before we go."  
  
Laura was clearly a little nervous herself. Emil had been genuinely surprised to see this side of her come out in the last month. He had always known Laura to be a consistent force of both competence in her work and confidence in her humour.  
  
"It's fine, we can go out now! While the weather's still decent. I thought maybe we could go to the lake." Sanna agreed, and the two women departed, leaving Emil alone again. He decided he might as well actually give some order to the mess of things in the drying cupboard. Everyone had been busy all summer, and the way the dishes were stacked together in their space above the sink had reached a worrying level of chaos.  
  
He was interrupted by Lalli coming downstairs and draping himself over his back, wrapping his arms around Emil's neck and resting his face against the back of his head. "Good morning."  
  
"It's evening." Lalli said into his hair. Emil still had to wonder sometimes at where the line was between Lalli's unusually literal manner and his facetious sense of humour, but this was clearly a bit of the latter. He kept trying to tidy the kitchen, laughing as Lalli made a slight show of weighing him down, enjoying the warmth on his back but not feeling any urgent need to be interrupted. Lalli would be back within days, as he had been all winter, spring and summer. There was no reason to believe that the coming autumn would be any different, nor any season after that. He did make sure to pull him into a kiss before he left, telling him to stay safe, but despite knowing there was danger in the forest he felt no real worry. Lalli always came back.


End file.
